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TOXIC U.S. MILITARY WASTE RE-CROSS PACIFIC

Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/11/2000 - 00:00

SUVA, Fiji Islands (April 10, 2000 – Radio Australia)---A 110-ton shipment of toxic U.S. military waste involving PCBs from bases in Japan is heading back across the Pacific Ocean from Vancouver, Canada.

The waste was destined for processing in Canada but local authorities stopped the shipment when environmentalists complained that Canada could become a dumping ground for foreign toxic waste.

The military then attempted to unload the containers at the port of Seattle but a United States law prohibits foreign-made PCBs from entering the country, even if the U.S. government owns them.

Two inflatable boats belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace, which led protests against the shipment, escorted the container ship Wan He as it left the Port of Vancouver.

The discarded transformers and other electrical equipment are expected to be unloaded when the ship's reaches Japan.

However, it's unclear what the Pentagon will do with the material laced with cancer-causing PCBs.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.